With a new survey reporting that residents of coastal states are unprepared for hurricane season, Virginia held its annual hurricane preparedness tax holiday last week to try to boost civilian readiness in that state. Virginia made a significant effort to promote the week and enlist the private sector with its marketing capacity and expertise behind citizen preparedness. The state also pitched the week as being a way for Virginians to get some good deals during the recession. Estimates say that residents saved $2.3 million on preparedness-related products last week .
Laura Southard from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management sent me a report from one of its preparedness events which enlisted Radio Disney to reach out to families in a creative way:
“Between the two Radio Disney events Monday, I would say nearly 100 families were reached through a fun, game show-style “Get Ready Virginia” event. Every parent received a goody bag containing Ready Virginia information, including a template for making a family emergency plan, kids’ game sheets, and a flyer listing the hurricane/flood season items exempt from sales tax. This is the first time we have used special events to drive home the need for families to take action, so we are anxious to see how response pans out over the summer and into the fall. Just look at the faces of all the kids and parents and you can see they had fun. Interestingly, the kids knew a lot about how to get ready for emergencies. It will be curious to see if their knowledge will translate into current family readiness — or will show up in the next generation.”
Ready Virginia/Radio Disney family preparedness event in Richmond, Virginia tied to the state’s hurricane preparedness tax holiday week (above).
One of the reasons that I am an advocate of these tax free weeks is that they provide an opportunity for government to get the private sector and their marketing operations involved in public preparedness. For example, in Virginia, ‘big-box’ chains Lowe’s and Target took out full-page ads in Sunday newspapers to promote the readiness week — a win/win/win for the businesses, the public and government emergency management officials.
Full-page Lowe’s newspaper advertisement promoting Virginia’s tax free hurricane preparedness supplies week (above).
3 responses so far ↓
1 New Book Offers State/Local Homeland Security Models, Asks ‘Would You Pay To Prepare Yourself & Your Family?’ (Almost One-Third Of Israelis Said ‘Yes’) // Nov 18, 2009 at 9:57 am
[...] way, as has been discussed on this blog, is to bring the private sector into citizen preparedness in the same way they have been involved [...]
2 Upcoming Virginia Preparedness Tax Holiday Underscores Role Of Incentives To Gain Public, Business, Media Interest; Other States, Localities, Feds Should Take Note // Apr 26, 2010 at 10:57 am
[...] During the Holiday, citizens can purchase emergency preparedness-related supplies without paying the 5% state sales tax. According to the Virginia Department of Taxation, in 2009 consumers saved $2.3 million in taxes on preparedness products up 5% from the year before. [...]
3 Administration Should Use White House Official Sunstein’s Ideas To “Nudge” Citizen Preparedness // May 16, 2010 at 6:10 am
[...] long felt that changing public behavior on citizen preparedness requires the kind of smarter presentation, better integration, small incentives, and more rigorous attention to create effective and [...]
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